Fathers 4 Justice slams ‘support’ virus

Campaign group Fathers 4 Justice has distanced itself from the release of mass mailing viruses (Mirsa-A and Mirsa-B), which featured messages supporting the group. "This is nothing to do with us, and we're upset our name has been misused in this way. It's not a style of message we would use," Fathers 4 Justice activist Andrew Neil told El Reg.

Fathers 4 Justice members have used high profile media stunts, such as scaling the walls of Buckingham Palace dressed as the superhero Batman, to raise awareness about the plight of fathers denied access to their children following the breakdown of relationships. Neil explained that the group’s campaigns were restricted to "non-violent direct action" and certainly didn't encompass virus writing. Either the viruses were written as an attempt to discredit the group or they were written by a misguided sympathiser "at the fringes" who acted stupidly, he added.

The Mirsa-A and Mirsa-B virus are typical mass mailers with the twist that the malware drop a section of text onto the hard drive of infected Windows boxes. The following text is plopped by W32/Mirsa-A into a Word document:

Neither Mirsa-A nor Mirsa-B has spread widely. Both are low risk. If you're unlucky enough to see one, the infected emails have subject lines such as "How NOT to get Promotion", "Memorandom to all staff", "Urgent Document", "Extremely Important", and "Private and personal" containing infected attachments, typically posing as a CV. ®